January 12, 2016 - GLOBAL ECONOMY - Investors face a “cataclysmic year” where stock markets could fall by
up to 20% and oil could slump to $16 a barrel, economists at the Royal Bank of Scotland have warned.

In a note to its clients the bank said: “Sell everything except high quality bonds. This is about return of capital, not return on capital. In a crowded hall, exit doors are small.” It said the current situation was reminiscent of 2008, when the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank led to the global financial crisis. This time China could be the crisis point.

Oil prices have also fallen sharply on fears of lower demand and a supply glut, especially with Iran due to start exporting once more when sanctions are lifted. Tensions between Iran and Saudia Arabia make it less likely that Opec can agree to cut production to halt the slide in prices. Brent crude is down another 1% at $31.18, its lowest level since April 2004.

Investors have been spooked by fears of a severe slowdown in the Chinese economy and a fall in the value of the yuan, not helped by a crash in the country’s stock market despite attempts by the country’s authorities to curtail selling.

Andrew Roberts, RBS’s credit chief, said: “China has set off a major correction and it is going to snowball. Equities and credit have become very dangerous, and we have hardly even begun to retrace the ‘Goldilocks love-in’ of the last two years.”

Markets have been supported for some time by low interest rates, stimulus measures from central banks including quantitative easing, and hopes of economic recovery. But with the Federal Reserve raising rates and the Bank of England expected to follow suit, that prop is being removed.

Roberts said European and US markets could fall by 10% to 20%, with the FTSE 100 particularly at risk due to the predominance of commodity companies in the UK index. “London is vulnerable to a negative shock. All these people who are long [buyers of] oil and mining companies thinking that the dividends are safe are going to discover that they’re not at all safe.

“We suspect 2016 will be characterised by more focus on how the exiting occurs of positions in the three main asset classes that benefited from quantitative easing: 1) emerging markets, 2) credit, 3) equities … Risks are high.”

RBS is not the only negative voice at the moment. Analysts at JP Morgan have advised clients to sell stocks on any bounce.

Morgan Stanley has said oil could fall to $20 a barrel, while Standard Chartered has predicted an even bigger slide, to as low as $10. Standard said: “Given that no fundamental relationship is currently driving the oil market towards any equilibrium, prices are being moved almost entirely by financial flows caused by fluctuations in other asset prices, including the US dollar and equity markets.

“We think prices could fall as low as $10 a barrel before most of the money managers in the market conceded that matters had gone too far.” - The Guardian.

Earthquake reported in northern Alberta

NRC preliminary analysis has the earthquake at 4.5 in magnitude. It happened at 11:27 a.m. (MST) Tuesday about 31 kilometres west of Fox Creek.

NRC said the quake was “lightly felt” in Fox Creek and St. Albert. There were no reports of damage.

It’s not unusual for earthquakes to be reported in the Fox Creek area. There have been about 200 quakes in the area since December 2013. Alberta averages 30 earthquakes each year.Last year, there were two 4.4 magnitude earthquakes in the area. Authorities said both quakes were the result of hydraulic fracturing in the oil and gas industry.It’s too early to determine if Tuesday’s earthquake was a result of fracking, NRC said.

However, the premier is asking that an Alberta Energy Regulator review of fracking be sped up.

“My officials have been in touch with the AER to find out exactly what the situation is and where we can get more details on that,” Notley said.

“Generally speaking the AER has been engaged in a review of fracking in particular as it relates to this issue and I’ll be asking them to speed that review up a little bit more to come up with some recommendations that we can consider sooner rather than later.”

The AER announced new requirements in February 2015, after several seismic events in the Fox Creek area. If a seismic event measuring 4.0 or greater occurs within five kilometres of an operator, it must cease operations and inform the AER. If a seismic event between 2.0 and 4.0 occurs, operators must inform AER and invoke their response plan.

January 12, 2016 - ENGLAND - Church of England attendance has slumped dramatically, leading
the Archbishop of Canterbury to warn against the rise of
“anti-Christian” culture and defend the church’s record as a force for
good in society.

The church’s annual pew count reports only 1.4 percent of the population of England attends Anglican services every Sunday. Mid-week services have also slipped below the one million mark for the first time.

Average Sunday attendance has fallen by 22,000 from 764,700 in 2014. That is a third less than the average during the 1960s.

The fall is partly down to the ageing and death of worshipers, with the church losing 1 percent of its attendees per year.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby told a recent crisis meeting of Anglican leaders the church is being affected by an “anti-Christian culture.”

“In this country many talk of the post-Christian society, but the Church of England educates more than a million children in our schools,” he told the gathered Primates.

WATCH: Church of England presents guide on how Christians should vote.

“We are involved in almost all the food banks as, for the first time since the 1930s, we have hunger in this country. We are still a major part of the glue that holds society together.”

Welby also claimed the church remains a key source of leadership in society.

“The Church of England is still a primary source of leadership for communities, to the dismay of the secularists,” he said.

A 2015 poll showed that Britain is one of the least religious countries in the world, coming sixth from bottom in a global study of belief carried out across 65 countries.

Win/Gallup International polling suggested over 50 percent of Britons do not subscribe to any religion, 13 percent are committed atheists and the rest are unsure how to define their beliefs.

January 12, 2016 - GLOBAL ECONOMY - The continued collapse of The Baltic Dry Index remains ignored by most - besides we still have Netflix, right? But, as Dollar Vigilante's Jeff Berwick details, it appears the worldwide 'real' economy has ground to a halt!!

Last week, I received news from a contact who is friends with one of
the biggest billionaire shipping families in the world. He told me they
had no ships at sea right now, because operating them meant running at a
loss.

This weekend, reports are circulating saying much the same thing: The
North Atlantic has little or no cargo ships traveling in its waters.
Instead, they are anchored. Unmoving. Empty.

Commerce between Europe and North America has literally come to a
halt. For the first time in known history, not one cargo ship is
in-transit in the North Atlantic between Europe and North America. All
of them (hundreds) are either anchored offshore or in-port. NOTHING is
moving.

This has never happened before. It is a horrific economic sign; proof that commerce is literally stopped.

We checked VesselFinder.com
and it appears to show no ships in transit anywhere in the world. We
aren’t experts on shipping, however, so if you have a better site or
source to track this apparent phenomenon, please let us know.

We also checked MarineTraffic.com, and it seemed to show the same thing. Not a ship in transit…

If true, this would be catastrophic for world trade. Even if it’s not true, shipping is still nearly dead in the water according to other indices. The Baltic Dry Index, an assessment of the price of moving major raw materials by sea, was already at record all-time lows a month ago... and in the last month it has dropped even more, especially in the last week. Today BDIY hit 415...

Factories aren’t buying and retailers aren’t stocking. The ratio of inventory to sales in the US is an indicator of this. The last time that ratio was this high was during the “great recession” in 2008.

Hey, Ms. Yellen, what recovery? The economy is taking on water at a rapid rate.

The storm has been building for some time, actually. Not so long ago, there was a spate of reports that the world’s automobile manufacturers were in trouble because cars were not selling and shipments were backing up around the world.

ZeroHedge reported on it this way:

In the past several years, one of the topics covered in detail on
these pages has been the surge in such gimmicks designed to disguise
lack of demand and end customer sales, used extensively by US automotive
manufacturers, better known as “channel stuffing”, of which General
Motors is particularly guilty and whose inventory at dealer lots just
hit a new record high.

Here is a photo of unsold cars in the United Kingdom from that article.

The world’s economy seems in serious trouble. You can’t print your way to prosperity. All you are doing is hollowing out your economy. Draining it. And sooner or later it’s empty and you have to start over after a good deal of crisis and chaos.

It’s no coincidence that China is struggling desperately to contain a stock implosion. Reportedly, banks have been told they are forbidden to buy US dollars and numerous Chinese billionaires have gone missing. And the markets have just opened on Monday and are again deeply in the red.

Here at The Dollar Vigilante we’ve specialized in explaining the reality of the global faux-economy and why it’s important that you not believe mainstream media lies.

In the meantime, keep your eye on this shipping story! If it is true and worldwide shipping is disastrously foundering, it’ll only be a matter of days before grocery store shelves will reflect that with increasingly bare shelves.

Are people upset now? Just wait. Interruptions in goods and services, most critically food, almost happened in 2008 during the Great Financial Crisis. For three days worldwide shipping was stranded due to shipping companies not knowing whether or not the receiver’s bank credit was good.

That crisis was staved off due to a massive amount of money printing. It was a temporary stay of execution, like bailing out the Titanic with coffee cups, however, and one that may reach much larger proportions in 2016.

Sailors watch the weather to see if it is safe to set sail. Investors should be watching the economic climate with the same intensity.

ANPC had issued warnings following a period of heavy rain and strong
winds that affected the North and Central regions of the country over
the last few days. The Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA)
also warned of high waves in several coastal areas of the districts of
Lisbon, Setúbal, Coimbra and Leiria.

ANPC say that they have recorded over 300 weather-related incidents over
the last 3 days, with around 200 of them a result of flooding. There
have also been reports of fallen trees and landslides. No fatalities
have been reported.

Two separate landslides in Baltar, Paredes municipality, in the district of Porto forced around 10 people from their homes.

Yesterday some surface flooding had blocked roads in the
districts of Porto, Vila Real, Viana do Castelo, Aveiro, Leiria and
Braga.

Overflowing Rivers in Porto and Coimbra

Porto district was one of the areas worst affected by the flooding,
where the overflowing Douro caused flooding in the towns of Porto, Vila
Nova de Gaia and Maia. Authorities say that river levels have since
fallen and the situation is returning to normal. Also in Porto district,
the Tâmega River overflowed causing some flooding in Amarante.

After a week of heavy rain, the Mondego River burst it's banks today,
causing some flooding in Coimbra, Portugal.

Flooded riverside bars and
cafes.

People walk on the bridge to look at the floods.

Authorities reported flooding yesterday in Coimbra as a result of high
levels of the Mondego river. Carlos Luís Tavares, District Commander
Relief Operations of Coimbra emergency Services said earlier today that
levels are starting to fall and the situation is returning to normal.

Over the last 3 days, emergency services in Coimbra recorded 88
incidents of flooding, as well as falling trees and landslides. There
are still some roads blocked in Coimbra district.

Two Trains Derailed

ANPC say that the severe weather also caused the derailment of two
trains, one in the municipality of Mangualde, Viseu district, injuring
three people and the other in municipality of Baião, Porto district.
Rainfall

According to WMO figures, during a 24 hour period to 10 January 2016,
100 mm of rain fell in Braganca, 94 mm in Viseu and 65 mm in Porto.

The next day Viseu recorded 58 mm in 24 hours to 11 January 2016, and Braganca 53.9 mm during the same period. - Floodlist.

Train derails as Portugal battered by storms

A
tornado in Matosinhos, mud-slides that caused a trail to derail in
Mangualde, widespread flooding in northern areas and no less than 19
deaths on the roads, Portugal is only today totting up the damage of a
truly desperate weekend.

Saturday began as the two days of horror
were set to continue with six people rapidly meeting their deaths on
the nation’s roads.

It is unknown whether all of the tragedies
were due to worsening weather conditions, but certainly one was provoked
by the wet road surface, reports national tabloid Correio da Manhã as
it detailed the story involving a housewife on her way home from the
shops in Estremoz and a 22-year-old man whose car was travelling in the
opposite direction.

In this case, both drivers died at the scene, after colliding due to a skid.

As
rain and high winds continued to batter the country, rivers throughout
the north and centre burst their banks, flooding roads, homes and
commercial establishments.

A tornado in Matosinhos, mud-slides that caused a trail to derail in Mangualde, widespread flooding in northern areas
and no less than 19 deaths on the roads, Portugal is only today totting up the damage of a truly desperate weekend.

Only the Algarve escaped the misery which saw as many as 20 litres of water falling in an hour in Porto, with winds reaching 92 km per hour.

But the worst was to come in the early hours of Sunday morning when a low-density tornado hit Matosinhos, ripping up roofs and shaking properties with terrifying force.

“It was like an inferno,” said one of the householders.

Four people had to be evacuated with two beachside restaurants left closed for repairs.

As torrential rain battered northern areas, rivers began bursting their banks in Amarante, Trofa, Gondomar, Vila Nova de Gaia and Alcafache, with floods also reporting in Maia and Coimbra.

Roads around the Vouga river became impassable “causing chaos”, writes CM, while houses were flooded in Valongo after the Leça river “rose abruptly”.

It was around this point in the day that a mudslide, due to the extreme wet weather, sent stones and builders’ detritus spewing across railway lines between Coimbra and Guarda, causing a train carrying 10 people to derail just outside Contenças station.

Three people were slightly injured: the driver, ticket collector and one of the passengers.

As Mangualde’s mayor João Azevedo told reporters, if it had been an express train, the damage would have been a lot worse.

The day continued with more than 830 emergencies called through to civil protection services - most of them involving flooding and the falling of trees.

According to the road safety authority, the weekend ended with a total of around 500 accidents, 19 deaths and 21 serious injuries.

Today the situation is still serious enough to feature on news bulletins, but the yellow alert in force in a number of areas is not expected to last beyond tonight. - Portugal Resident.

January 12, 2016 - MIDDLE EAST - In five months of battling the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern
Turkey, Ankara has killed over 160 civilians, according to a rights
group report. Among them was an unborn child, whose mother was shot. Today, asuicide bomber carried out an attack in central Istanbul, killing
at least 10 foreigners, mostly German tourists, and injuring 15 more,
according to officials. Police said the suspect was of Saudi Arabian
origin. Meanwhile in Iraq, at least fifty one people lost their lives in a series of terrorist acts
that rocked the capital of Baghdad and two other towns on Monday.

Over 160 civilians, including unborn child, killed in Turkish crackdown on Kurds

In five months of battling the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey, Ankara has killed over 160 civilians, according to a rights group report. Among them was an unborn child, whose mother was shot.

In August, Ankara launched a ground operation to crack down on Kurdish fighters linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The violence ended a two-year truce with the Kurdish militants, who have been fighting a guerrilla war for independence for decades. An estimated 10,000 Turkish troops armed with heavy weapons and armored vehicles, including tanks, were deployed.Since August 16, Turkish troops have imposed at least 58 curfews in Kurdish regions, disrupting the lives of some 1.4 million people living in the affected provinces, Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) said. Some lasted 10 hours or less, but others went on for days and weeks, and some are still ongoing. The curfews affected 19 districts in the provinces of Batman, Diyarbakır, Elazıg, Hakkari, Mardin, Mus and Sırnak.

While the curfews have been in place, at least 162 civilians have been killed. The death toll includes 29 women, 32 children, and 24 elderly people. One of the victims in the city of Cizre in Sırnak Province was an unborn child, who was killed by a gunshot to his mother's womb, the group said. The mother, Guler Yanalak, was seven month’s pregnant at the time and reportedly survived the injury.

The HRFT said at least 22 people were killed in their homes, some of them from heavy weapons used by the fighting sides. Four people were reported to have been killed in areas where no curfews had been declared. The violence against civilians appears to have escalated since December 11, the group said, with 79 civilian deaths reported since then.

The PKK, founded in 1978, has been fighting the Turkish state for Kurdish self-determination since 1984. Kurds make up between 10 percent and 25 percent of Turkey’s population. In late December, a congress of Kurdish non-governmental organizations called for Turkey’s southeastern regions to be granted autonomy via constitutional reforms.

The escalation of violence in Turkey came two months after the Kurdish militia in Syria, known as the YPG, as well as the Turkish pro-Kurdish party, the HDP, accused Ankara of aiding Islamic State in their offensive on Kurdish territories in Syria. At the time, the terrorists were laying siege to the Kurdish border town of Kobani.

Ankara has been stepping up its military operations on the border with Syria and Iraq since December. The area is a stronghold of the PKK, which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to continue the operation until the area is cleansed of Kurdish militants.

A suicide bomber has carried out an attack in central Istanbul, killing at least 10 foreigners, mostly German tourists, and injuring 15 more, according to officials. Police said the suspect was of Saudi Arabian origin.

At least nine German citizens were injured in the blast, Reuters reports citing a senior Turkish official.

One more injured is Norwegian and another one is Peruvian, according to Dogan news agency. Norway’s Foreign Ministry later confirmed that one Norwegian citizen was injured in the blast and is receiving treatment at a local hospital.

There was a group of German tourists on the square at the time of the blasts, an official from a tour company told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The explosion took place on Sultanahmet Square. It occurred close to the Sultanahmet tram stop and Dikilitas, the Obelisk of Theodosius, in the heart of Istanbul’s tourist district.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a Syrian suicide bomber is believed to be responsible for the deadly attack.

WATCH: Suicide attack in Istanbul.

"I condemn the terror incident in Istanbul assessed to be an attack by a suicide bomber with Syrian origin. Unfortunately we have 10 dead including foreigners and Turkish nationals... There are also 15 wounded," Erdogan said.

Istanbul authorities are investigating the incident and the type of the explosives used in the blast, the governor’s office said.

The suicide bomber was identified as a Syrian born in 1988, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said during a press conference, adding that most of the victims of the blast are foreigners.

Dogan news agency later reported that the suspect had been identified as Saudi-born Nabil Fadlı. His birth year was confirmed as 1988, the agency said, citing police.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also said the suspect may be a member of the terror group Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL). According to Turkish officials, he recently entered Turkey from Syria.

Erdem Koroglu, who was working at a nearby office at the time of the explosion, told NTV he saw several people lying on the ground following the blast.

“It was difficult to say who was alive or dead,” Koroglu said. “Buildings rattled from the force of the explosion.”

One woman who works at a nearby antiques store told Reuters that the explosion was very loud.

"We shook a lot. We ran out and saw body parts," she said.

"I started running away with my daughter. We went into a nearby building and stayed there for half an hour. It was really scary," a German tourist named Caroline told AFP.

"We're taking precautions against a second explosion," a police officer said.

Sultanahmet Square, once a social center of the former Constantinople, is a popular tourist destination. A 30-meter-tall Obelisk of Theodosius made of red granite is located in the center of the square, as well as the famous German Fountain (The Kaiser Wilhelm Fountain) which was constructed by the German government back in 1900.

Another main attraction near the square is Hagia Sophia, one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture, which draws hundreds of tourists every day.After the explosion, the German Foreign Office issued a statement, urging its citizens to avoid public places and tourist attractions in Istanbul. The office added that it fears there is a risk of terrorist attacks across Turkey, and called on its citizens to “avoid staying near government and military institutions.”

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has also issued a travel warning for British citizens in Turkey.

51 killed in single day of terror attacks in Baghdad & nearby towns

At least fifty one people lost their lives in a series of terrorist acts that rocked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and two other towns on Monday. The Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) extremist group has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks.

In the predominately Shia Muslim Baghdad al-Jadida district, a group of gunmen broke into the Jawaher mall after detonating a car bomb and staging a suicide attack at the entrance. At least 18 people were killed in the assault, which also left 50 wounded, AP reported, citing Iraqi officials.

Iraqi Samarra TV has released an alleged video of the attack.Initially, the country’s officials described the incident as a hostage situation, claiming that from 50 to 75 people were trapped inside the mall, but security forces quickly surrounded the building and deployed troops on the roof.As a result of clashes between the terrorists and security forces, two of the attackers were killed and four more arrested. Four police officers were also killed in the hour-and-a-half-long assault, AP reports, citing the police and medical officials.

Iraqi television channel Al Sumaria cited a statement from the county’s Interior Ministry that said the hostage crisis had been resolved.

Iraqi television channel Al Sumaria cited a statement from the county’s Interior Ministry that said the hostage crisis had been resolved.

“All the terrorists have been eliminated. The situation in the Baghdad Jadida district is under control,” the statement said.

The broadcaster also reported that all of the hostages inside the mall had been rescued.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on social media in which the terrorist group said it had targeted Shiite Muslims because it sees them as “rejectionist heathens.”

Gunmen charged into the mall after a car bomb exploded outside the building, in the largely Shia Muslim area of New Baghdad [AP]

Following the incident, Iraqi authorities shut down Baghdad’s highly fortified Green Zone, where a number of foreign embassies and most of the country’s political elite reside. A number of major roads, shopping malls, and bridges around the Iraqi capital were also closed.

In addition, at least 23 people were killed and some 50 injured in two bombing attacks in the Iraqi town of Muqdadiya, 80 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, where a terrorist committed a suicide bomb attack inside a casino and then a car bomb parked outside exploded as medics and civilians gathered at the scene, Reuters reported, citing security and medical sources. Islamic State also claimed responsibility of the twin blast in Muqdadiya.

At least seven more people died and 15 were wounded as another suicide bomber driving a car attacked a commercial street in the southeastern Baghdad Sunni suburb of Nahrawan.

Earlier on Monday, IS said it was behind a car bomb which had killed three people and wounded eight near a restaurant in the town of Baquba, which is located 65 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. In response, security officials imposed a curfew in Diyala province, where the towns of Muqdadiya and Baquba are located.

Monday’s attacks claimed the lives of 48 people in total, leaving the highest death toll in three months, according to Reuters.

Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier General Saad Maan, blamed “this terrorist group after they suffered heavy losses by the security forces,” without mentioning Islamic State by name.

Last month, Iraqi government forces achieved a major victory over IS militants by liberating the country’s western city of Ramadi and recapturing territory that was once the extremists’ stronghold.
- RT.

January 12, 2016 - UNITED STATES - The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is ending its elephant
acts a year and a half early, and will retire all of its touring
elephants in May.

The move comes amid increasing scrutiny of circus elephant acts with local governments passing "anti-circus" and "anti-elephant" ordinances in response to concerns over animal cruelty.

The circus's parent company, Feld Entertainment, told The Associated Press exclusively that all of the iconic elephants will be permanently retired to the company's 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation, located between Orlando and Tampa.

The company announced in March that it would retire the full herd to the center by 2018. But once officials began planning details, they realized "we could actually do this a lot sooner" because building the new structures to house the retiring elephants didn't take as long as they originally thought, said Alana Feld, Ringling's executive vice president and show producer. It costs about $65,000 yearly to care for each elephant, Feld said.

Eleven elephants currently tour with the circus.They'll be joining the rest of the herd," Feld said. She's part of the family that owns Feld Entertainment, which owns the largest herd of Asian elephants in North America. In addition to the elephants still touring, 29 of the animals are on the property now, and two are on breeding loans to zoos, Feld said.

"Like the elephants themselves, it had outsized importance because of the symbolic value of the enterprise," wrote Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. "Ringling had been one of the biggest defenders of this kind of archaic animal exploitation, and the imminent end of its traveling elephant acts signaled that even one of the most tough-minded and hardened animal-use companies now recognized that the world is changing and it had to adapt."

Elephant acts have been showcased by Ringling for more than a century and have often been featured on its posters.

But because so many cities and counties have passed "anti-circus" and "anti-elephant" ordinances, it became difficult to organize tours of three traveling circuses to 115 cities each year, Feld Entertainment CEO Kenneth Feld said last year. Fighting legislation in each jurisdiction is expensive, he said.Los Angeles and Oakland prohibited the use of bull-hooks by elephant trainers and handlers last April. The city of Asheville, North Carolina, also nixed wild or exotic animals from performing in the municipally owned, 7,600-seat U.S. Cellular Center.

Ringling's new show will begin in July without the giant pachyderms.

"We're looking at a lot of new ways of doing things," Feld said.

She said the retired elephants at the CEC will also be part of cancer research.

Cancer is much less common in elephants than in humans, even though the big animals' bodies have many more cells. That's a paradox known among scientists, and now researchers think they may have an explanation — one they say might someday lead to new ways to protect people from cancer.

Compared with just one copy in humans, elephants' cells contain 20 copies of a major cancer-suppressing gene, two teams of scientists reported in October. The gene helps damaged cells repair themselves or self-destruct when exposed to cancer-causing substances.

The findings aren't proof that those extra p53 genes make elephants cancer-resistant, but if future research confirms it, scientists could try to develop drugs for humans that would mimic the effect.

Dr. Joshua Schiffman, a pediatric cancer specialist at the University of Utah, is one of the researchers trying to find clues in the blood samples of some of the Ringling elephants.

"There's so much to be learned from their DNA," Feld said.

Animal rights activists have long alleged that circuses have mistreated elephants.

In 2014, Feld Entertainment won $25.2 million in settlements from a number of animal-rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14-year legal battle over allegations that Ringling circus employees mistreated elephants.

On Monday, Ingrid Newkirk, the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, called on Ringling to end all animal acts and that "vigilance will be needed to determine how they are treated" at the Florida sanctuary.

Elephants have been a symbol of the Ringling circus for decades. P.T. Barnum brought an Asian elephant named Jumbo to America in 1882. - Newsday.

Minister of Health John Boyce said samples have been sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency for confirmatory testing.

And he has cautioned the population not to panic.

The minister said that although he is aware that members of the public would be concerned whenever a new disease emerged, Barbadians should use simple measures to prevent mosquito breeding around their homes, business places and communities.

“The fact that the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the Zika virus, is the same mosquito that spreads dengue fever and chikungunya, we are all very familiar with the prevention and control measures which we need to undertake…Inspect your surroundings to search out and remove mosquito breeding places on your properties.

Minister of Health John Boyce.

The Ministry of Health recommends that this should be done once per week,” Boyce said.

The Zika virus was reported in the Caribbean region for the first time in June 2015. It is a mild febrile viral illness that is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes aegypti mosquito. Illness resulting from infection is usually mild, and it is not considered to be as severe as Dengue Fever or Chikungunya.

The H1N1 virus, commonly referred to as the swine flu virus, is transmitted easily from person to person via droplets and small particles produced when infected people cough or sneeze.

Symptoms are similar to those of the seasonal flu and include: cough, fever, sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, body aches, headaches, chills and fatigue.

Meantime, Boyce said that to combat Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses, the Environmental Health Department would continue to carry out prevention and control activities, such as house to house inspections, surveillance at ports of entry and fogging in high risk areas.

In addition, the ministry will continue its epidemiological surveillance to collect and analyze data from various sources, including private and public sector facilities, on a weekly basis to gather information for planning a response. - Caribbean 360.

January 12, 2016 - RUSSIA - The Russian president has signed a decree making 2017 the Year
of Ecology.

The move is designed to attract public attention to
environmental problems, maintain ecological diversity and protect the
ecological security of the country.

Vladimir Putin also
ordered the founding of a special commission for the task and appointed
the head of presidential administration Sergey Ivanov chairman of this
committee.

He charged the Russian government with the job of coming up
with a plan of major Year of Ecology events.

Since 2008 the
president has dedicated each year to various spheres of life to boost
public awareness. 2008 was declared the Year of the Family, 2009 – the
Year of the Younger Generation, 2010 – the Year of the Teacher, 2011 –
the Year of Russian Cosmonautics, 2012 – the Year of Russian History,
2013 – the Year of Environmental Protection, 2014 – the Year of Culture,
2015 – the Year of Literature and 2016 is the Year of Cinema.

Vladimir
Putin is well known for his ecology and environmental protection
initiatives. Since 2010 he has chaired the Council of Sponsors of the
Russian Geographical Society.

He has personally taken part in many
events launched by the organization.

In 2012, he visited an
endangered bird sanctuary in Yamal Peninsula and used a hang glider to
train a flock of young cranes to navigate the sky ahead of their winter
migration to Central Asia.

In 2008, Putin shot an endangered Siberian
tiger with a stun dart before putting a tracking device on him, and in
2010 he used a crossbow for the same purpose on a rare whale.

While
mass media and bloggers often dismiss the president’s moves as
publicity stunts, many in the scientific community appreciate the
attention.

Scientists complain that the majority of funding for similar
programs used to come from abroad, but say the president’s interest in
their causes should bring more funding from inside Russia. - RT.

Indian wildlife officials measure one among the
dozens of whales that have washed ashore on the Bay of Bengal coast's
Manapad beach in Tuticorin district, Tamil Nadu state, India on Tuesday,
Jan.12, 2016.

January 12, 2016 - TAMIL NADU, INDIA - At least 45 small whales (short-finned pilot whales), part of the lot
which washed ashore in Tiruchendur in Tamil Nadu on Monday evening, have
died.More than 100 whales were found on the 16km stretch from Alanthalai to Kallamozhi coastal hamlets on Tuesday morning. Thirty six of them have been rescued by fishermen.

"The whales started reaching the shore in groups around 5pm. It
is very strange. In 1973 when we were boys, we witnessed same
phenomenon. However, not these many washed ashore then," said Rajan, a
fishermen in Manapad.

Ditto Mascarenhas of Kulasekarapattinam said if local fishermen had not
kept a vigil, many more whales would have died. The fishermen remained
awake the whole night to keep the whales in water by pulling them back
to the sea.

Tuticorin district collector M Ravikumar inspected the coast. He said
officials were investigating the reason for such a huge number of whales
reaching the shore.

Over100 whales were found on the 16km stretch from Alanthalai to Kallamozhi coastal hamlets on Tuesday morning.

The short-finned pilot whales were first spotted ashore on Monday evening. Officials have asked local marine experts
for help in returning the whales to the ocean as soon as possible.

Short-finned pilot whales,
one of the largest species in the dolphin family after killer whales,
are frequently involved in mass strandings
on beaches, though experts
don’t know why, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.

A team from the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park in Ramanathapuram has rushed to the spot.
A Possible Reason

Former director of Zoological Survey of India K Venkataraman said
cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are social marine mammals.
They live in groups and if the leader of the group is disturbed due to
changes in underwater, they get disoriented immediately. They start
drifting from their normal path and head towards the shoreline, leading
to their deaths.

On Monday, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter
scale and another one measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale were in the
Philippines and Indonesia, respectively. These could have disoriented
the whales.

In India, the first ever report of mass stranding of this whale species
was reported in Salt Lake in Kolkata in 1852. The maximum number of
whale stranding on Indian coastline happened in 1973 during which time
147 whales got stranded, Venkataraman said.

WATCH: Dozens of beached whales die as hundreds wash up in India.

Annually world over 2,000 whales get stranded. More than 1,500 whales
have been stranded along the Indian coastline since 1800 till 2015.

So far no study on this issue has been taken up in the country, lament
researchers. One of the reasons is that not many funding agencies are
ready to finance the study.

Study on population dynamics of cetaceans, their breeding ecology,
habitat degradation and other related issues needed to be taken up by
the government. Only such an effort would help in protecting these
endangered marine mammals. - Times of India.

January 12, 2016 - HEALTH - The movement of consumers avoiding unnatural genetically modified organisms (GMOs) hidden in foods is growing so swiftly and with such force, it’s becoming a revolution. Here are several of the latest developments in the struggle to ban GMOs.

Monsanto announces 1,000 job cuts after first-quarter losses

Agrotech giant Monsanto said that it will eliminate 1,000 jobs as part of a bid to cut costs in the wake of lower profits. The cuts are the latest in a longer series of downsizing measures.

Monsanto said that its income has been been hurt by a drop in major crop prices that has curbed farmers’ incomes and subsequent spending, as well as its continued trouble with countries’ monetary policies internationally.

“Currency has become a much stronger headwind with the recent events in Argentina,” said Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant, referring to the country’s move in December to devalue its currency, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The company, which sells agricultural chemicals and genetically engineered seeds, says that the most recent planned cuts will generate between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion, up from previous estimates of $850 million to $900 million.

This is only the latest push in the St. Louis-based company’s restructuring efforts, first unveiled in October. At the time, the company announced that it would eliminate 2,600 positions.

The push to streamline its business came as the US Department of
Agriculture projected in November that farm income in the country would
drop 38 percent in 2015 to the lowest level in over a decade, prompting
farmers to scale back spending on farm supplies that Monsanto and other
agriculture companies provide.

The job cuts came as
Monsanto reported that revenues slumped to $253 million, or 56 cents per
share in the quarter ending November 30, down from a $243 million loss
last year, or 50 cents per share. Revenue over the same period dropped
by 23 percent, falling short of Wall Street expectations.

Corn sales – Monsanto’s biggest source of profit – fell 20 percent to $745 million, but this was offset by soybean sales growing 11 percent to $438 million. Soybeans have become more popular with US farmers pursuing higher profits, and Monsanto has rolled out new varieties of Soybean seeds in North and South America.

Monsanto has been the leader in the genetically engineered seed industry for over a decade, and has begun to develop such products specifically for emerging markets in parts of Asia and South America. Genetically modified seeds are imbued with characteristics that help farmers attain better harvests.

However, the company has also drawn the ire of environmental lobbyists. In May 2015, March Against Monstanto protests were held in more than 400 cities across the globe. Activists accused the agrotech corporation of polluting water with its pesticides and contaminating neighboring farmers’ crops with its genetically modified pollen. The company also garnered criticism from anti-GMO activists for its lobbying against required labeling for food made from genetically modified organisms.

In September, Kenyans took to the streets to protest Monsanto, USAID and the Bill and the Melinda Gates Foundation putting pressure on their country to lift its GMO ban. - RT.

'Monsanto get out!' Protests against agro-giant held in Argentina

Crowds have taken to the streets of Buenos Aires, to rally against Monsanto and its activities in the rural town of Malvinas Argentinas, where the agro-industrial corporation has been planning to build the world’s biggest maize seed treatment plant.

Demonstrators in the Argentinian capital held banners reading "Monsanto get out", chanted and beat on drums. They wore gas masks symbolizing the dangers of Monsanto’s activities.Protests were also held in other cities across Argentina. Protesters marched in support of an activists’ camp, which is blocking the Monsanto-owned property in Malvinas Argentinas in the Cordoba region. The camp recently received an eviction notice from the authorities.

A labor appeals court in north-central Argentina ruled two years ago that the construction of a Monsanto plant was unconstitutional. Work on the site was halted.

WATCH: Thousands march against Monsanto in Argentina.

"Monsanto has for a long time been attempting to install itself in areas illegally, where court decisions have previously blocked the development plan, and has failed with all its political pressure to win a legal method to install its project," environmental lawyer Enrique Viale told RT.

The protesters also spoke out about the harm Monsanto’s activities inflict on the territory.

"In Argentina there are 23 million fields with transgenic soy, and hundreds of millions of liters of agrochemicals are used per year," Enrique Viale said.

Luis Zamora, a former candidate for Buenos Aires Mayor, who attended the rally, echoed Viale’s concerns.

"Biodiversity is affected negatively when 15 million inhabitants of the country use hundreds of millions of liters of glyphosate, which is the pesticide Monsanto manufactures to protect soybeans," Zamora said. - RT.

Taiwan bans GMOs from school lunches... mandates GMO labeling
nationwide... throws down gauntlet on toxic foods from USA and Monsanto

Even as the fascist, corrupt U.S. government and its regulators (FDA and
USDA) actively conspire with the biotech industry to poison Americans
with genetically modified foods, Taiwan has already passed and
implemented a nationwide law to protect its citizens from GMOs.

Nearly a full year ago, Taiwan passed Food Act Amendments
that achieve remarkable food safety milestones the U.S. government
refuses to implement, placing Taiwan far ahead of the United States on
food safety. These milestones include:

1) Requiring the mandatory
labeling of GMOs on all food products that contain 3 percent or more
GMOs. Foods that use no GMOs may be labeled "non-GMO" ... and many
already are, causing their sales to skyrocket across Taiwan. Just last
year, imports of non-GMO soybeans to Taiwan grew nearly 300% to 58,000
tons.

2) Limiting the use of food additives to just 799 compounds
approved by the Taiwan FDA. The FDA of the United States, by
comparison, allows tens of thousands of chemicals to be used as
additives, even when they are well known to cause cancer.

3) All
GMO ingredients are required to be registered with the Taiwan
government, and food manufacturers that use GMOs are required to
establish an origins tracking system to identify where those GMOs
originated.

4) All the soy milk, tofu, miso and other soy-derived
products sold everywhere across the country -- including at cafes and
street food vendors -- must be clearly labeled as GMOs if they use
genetically modified soy.

5) Food products made using genetically
modified soy as a processing agent or blended ingredient must also
label their final food products as GMO, even if the soybean oil is not, itself, the final product.

6) Fines for violating these food safety provisions have been set at NT$50 million.

USA food safety lags far behind the rest of the world

This
shows yet again just how far behind the United States is on food safety
compared to the rest of the world. Instead of promoting actual food
safety, the FDA gives a free pass to GMOs,
heavy metals, artificial additives and other toxic chemicals, focusing
almost exclusively on bacteriological contamination issues such as
e.coli and salmonella.

That's why the USA lags far behind the
rest of the world on the banning of artificial additives and
preservative chemicals, most of which have already been banned across
the EU. The U.S. government continues to allow extremely toxic
pesticides and herbicides to be used across the agricultural industry
(including California's strawberry operations), and as the news in this
article shows, the USA now lags far behind Taiwan on the issue of GMO labeling and banning GMOs from school lunches.

Increasingly, U.S. food safety looks like a third world nation being run by a cartel of imperialistic food corporations that dictate government policy.
Public health has NOTHING to do with government regulatory policy at
this point. It's all about appeasing Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont,
Kellogg's, PepsiCo and all the other poison-pushing food and beverage companies that continue to poison a nation of food victims
into epidemics of diabetes, cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's.

"The
latest amendments to the School Health Act are aimed at all school meal
providers, to ban genetically modified raw ingredients and any
processed foods that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from
school menus," reports the China Post. The Post also reports:

Legislator
Lin Shu-fen, an advocate for passing the bill, said that studies abroad
have shown a high connection between the consumption of GM foods and
the prevalence of allergies, autism and rare diseases.

"Soy is a major ingredient in Taiwan's school lunches," said Lin. "Genetically modified soy has been shown to contains toxic residue from pesticides."

You
almost never hear such statements from the sellout politicians in
America, nearly all of whom have been bribed and bought off by the
biotech industry. Making matters even worse, poison-pushing U.S.
publishers like Forbes.com -- named the single most evil news publication of 2015 by EVIL.news -- carry deceptive propaganda articles by sleazebag industry scientists like Henry Miller who ridiculously claims that herbicides are harmless and GMOs pose no health risks whatsoever.

Entire world revolting against U.S. agricultural imperialism and fascist, corporate-dictated government policy

The rest of the world, however, isn't buying the U.S. propaganda. In fact, the rest of the world is revolting against U.S. agricultural imperialism
where prostituted U.S. lawmakers and regulators are bought off by
industry to shove GMOs down the throats of all the other countries under
so-called "fair trade" regulations such as the TPP.

Taiwan's pig
farmers, for example, are also organizing a massive, nationwide protest
over the U.S. pork industry's continued usage of ractopamine, a
toxic drug fed to pigs to cause rapid weight gain. The Taiwan government
is under imperialistic pressure from U.S. trade representatives to lift
its ban on the import of U.S. pork grown with the drug. If the ban is
lifted, it would flood the Taiwan market with cheap, low-grade pork
that's been artificially multiplied with the use of a toxic drugs that
isn't used at all in the Taiwan pork industry, reports Asia News Network.

U.S.
has long pushed tobacco products and other toxic chemicals onto Taiwan
via international trade pressure. GMOs are also being aggressively
shoved down the throats of the world's children by the U.S. federal
government, which is widely food as a "food bully" across the globe.

Perhaps
that's why countries like Taiwan are working so diligently to protect
their own children from U.S. food policies that push poison for
corporate (Monsanto) profits. "The passing of this bill not only means
our children will be eating more safely, but it also indicates a
heightened understanding of food safety in our society," said legislator
Lu Shiow-yen in the China Post article linked above. - Natural News.

Campbell’s is the first big food company to disclose GMO ingredients on label

You spoke and Campbell’s food company listened. Previously, Campbell’s unveiled plans to run toward the health-conscious organic and non-GMO
market dollar. Now, they have dropped one of the biggest publicity
bombs ever by announcing their intention to voluntarily label their GMO
ingredients.

Part of their previous plans for change included launching several
lines of organic kids soups, and removing MSG from all their kids soups,
creating organic wheat versions of cracker products, increasing
organics across other food lines, removing artificial colors and flavors
from nearly all North American products in the next three years,
removing high fructose corn syrup from Pepperidge Farm fresh breads, and
increasing the transparency of their ingredients, including the launch
of a new website; What’s in My Food.

In the first week of January 2016, however, the mammoth company turned heads
by “switching sides” and now openly advocating for the national
standard of labeling genetically modified ingredients. They will no
longer expend funds or energy on blocking the effort to have GM food
labeled. Campbell’s might actually become the first major food company to list its GMO ingredients.

The Campbell Soup Co., after years of staunch opposition to mandatory labels, now says
that it “will advocate for federal legislation that would require all
foods and beverages regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to be clearly and simply
labeled for GMOs.”

In a letter to the company’s employees, posted
on Campbell’s website, Campbell’s CEO Denise Morrison wrote that the
company was responding to the desires of consumers, but it also wanted
to avoid multiple and conflicting demands for GMO labeling by individual
states. “Printing a clear and simple statement on the label is the best
solution for consumers and for Campbell,” Morrison wrote.

“The company continues to oppose a patchwork of state-by-state
labeling laws, which it believes are incomplete, impractical and create
unnecessary confusion for consumers,” they said.
They added:

Campbell is optimistic a federal solution can be
established in a reasonable amount of time if all the interested
stakeholders cooperate. However, if that is not the case, Campbell is
prepared to label all of its U.S. products for the presence of
ingredients that were derived from GMOs, not just those required by
pending legislation in Vermont. The company would seek guidance from the
FDA and approval by USDA.
[…]

With 92 percent of Americans supporting the labeling of GMO foods,
Campbell believes now is the time for the federal government to act
quickly to implement a federal solution.

Vermont passed legislation that will require food
companies including Campbell to label products regulated by the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) that may contain ingredients made from GMO
crops. However, this legislation does not include products with meat or
poultry, because they are regulated by United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA).

The question is – what is the federal solution? The federal
stance is to keep labeling as it is with consumers in the dark about
whether they are eating genetically modified ingredients or not.
Here is a mock-up of the label via MMS Businesswire:

It
is the FDA that is actually disappointed with the move, claiming that
that GMOs are safe and nutritionally identical to ingredients made from
conventionally raised crops. They take on the biotech industry line that
labeling consumer food is akin to a warning that will cause unnecessary
fear. Campbell’s still supports GMOs and believes them to be safe –
they direct consumers to their “What’s In My Food” site which tries to coax consumers
that there is no difference and no disparity in safety between GMO
ingredients and conventional. It’s clear to see where their true beliefs
lie, but they have “broken rank” with the rest of Big Food companies
and perhaps will create a domino effect that will support consumer
choice.

Campbell’s has expanded the reason
for their change of heart, citing a “consumer first” attitude. The
expansion also reiterates their belief that GMOs are safe to eat, but
they also express that they want consumers to feel good about their
choices. Unfortunately, Campbell’s is misleading consumers with these
claims as the effects of engineered organisms in the human body were not
tested for long-term safety and even minute amounts of glyphosate
pesticide have devastating health effects such as breast cancer risks in
parts per trillion. See: GMO Myths and Truths

On the other hand, imagine that Big Food starts changing over all the
ingredients in their products to benevolent sources. Suddenly,
preschoolers, hospital patients, students, the elderly and SNAP users
aren’t forced to compromise their health simply because that’s all the
companies will provide.

Sadie Wright, of NOAA Fisheries, prepares to examine a Steller sea lion found dead on a Gulf of Alaska Beach near Cordova.

January 12, 2016 - NORTH AMERICA - In warming ocean, record number of seals and sea lions sicken and starve — Ailing or dead seals and sea lions washed up on California beaches in record numbers in 2015; this year could be worse… They are brought in with all sorts of problems: lockjaw, poisoning, cancer…
But most of the record number of seals and sea lions washing up on
California’s shores and being brought to a regional rescue center are
starving… this slow-motion catastrophe islikely to continue…
In 2015, [NOAA] counted more than 4,200 California sea lions, 90
Guadalupe fur seals, and 70 northern fur seals. The [Marine Mammal
Center's] staff began to realize something was different early in the
year… the pups brought in for rescue were unlike anything the veterinarians had ever seen… It was the worst year in the center’s 40-year history, staff said… Only half the usual number of sea lion pups were born off the California coast in 2015,
[Dr. Shawn Johnson, director of veterinary science at the Marine Mammal
Center] said… veterinarians at the Marine Mammal Center are bracing for
the worst. - Al Jazeera.

“They were basically just skin and bones. Their liver, their pancreas, their intestines were basically shut down. And they were eating themselves from the inside
to stay alive by the time we saw them… If it continues, if this is the
new normal, the sea lion population and the fur seal population in
California are going to have severe drops in their overall population.” - Dr. Shawn Johnson, director of veterinary science at the Marine Mammal Center.

With the lowest body weights ever documented, California sea lion pups are not only starving from lack of food, they’re infested with parasites and immune to antibiotics,
said [Keith Matassa] the director of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center… A
record number of emaciated and dying sea lion and seal pups is expected
along local shores this winter… Last year, 3,500 sea lions and seals
were rescued by various California marine rehab facilities. This year,
the stranded pinnipeds are expected to hit 4,000… The animals areriddled with intestine-perforating parasites, known as thorny-head hookworms. “We’re seeing such a high level of parasites now, it’s not normal,”
said Matassa… Antibiotics for infections are proving ineffective…
Conditions have “not gotten much better over the past couple of years,”
[Sharon Melin, NOAA wildlife biologist] said… The food web, said Melin,
“has been out of whack now for quite some time.”… The fact that northern
pup seals are following suit signifies the domino effect of a
distressed environment, she said… the California sea lion population
tops out at 300,000… she predicts a drastic decline to 100,000 due to low food availability… “There’s so many stressors on the ocean right now,” Matassa said. - Laguna Beach Independent.

Unprecedented numbers of dead or starving seals washing ashore as Pacific Ocean warms, with experts saying they are ‘preparing for the worst’ in 2016…
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries,
there has been a huge increase in stranded sea lions… According to
NOAA, more than 4,200 sick sea lions have been washed up in California
so far this year, comfortably the greatest number of strandings over the
past decade. - Guardian.